Literary notes about Slough (AI summary)
The word slough in literature is strikingly versatile, simultaneously describing a tangible, muddy depression and symbolizing a state of despondency. In its most literal sense, authors use slough to evoke an image of boggy landscapes or stagnant pools that one must traverse or overcome, as seen in descriptions of physical terrain and watery depressions ([1], [2], [3]). At the same time, slough takes on a powerful figurative role, most famously in the “Slough of Despond” of John Bunyan’s work, where it represents a heavy, inescapable mire of despair and hopelessness ([4], [5], [6], [7], [8]). This duality allows the term to capture both natural environments and inner emotional landscapes, extending further into realms like political critique and even anatomical processes, demonstrating its enduring literary impact ([9], [10], [11]).
- I reckon it'll purty nigh bridge the slough.
— from In the Days of Poor Richard by Irving Bacheller - In the woods, at a short distance below the clearing, I found a depression, dry at the time, but which at high water became a slough or bayou.
— from Personal Memoirs of U. S. Grant, Complete by Ulysses S. Grant - Till in some miry slough he sunk is, Ne'er mair to rise.
— from Poems and Songs of Robert Burns by Robert Burns - He had, I think, a Slough of Despond in his mind, a slough that he carried everywhere with him, or else he could never have been as he was.
— from The Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan Every Child Can Read by John Bunyan - We, indeed, came both together, until we came at the Slough of Despond, into the which we also suddenly fell.
— from The Pilgrim's Progress from this world to that which is to come by John Bunyan - They told me of the Slough of Despond, where Christian was well-nigh smothered.
— from The Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan Every Child Can Read by John Bunyan - We indeed came both together until we came to the Slough of Despond, into the which we also suddenly fell.
— from The Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan Every Child Can Read by John Bunyan - "We were in the Slough of Despond to-night, and mother came and pulled us out as Help did in the book.
— from Little Women; Or, Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy by Louisa May Alcott - Now we are being connected with the Victoria Institute, and sucked into the slough of politics.
— from Life and Letters of Thomas Henry Huxley — Volume 3 by Thomas Henry Huxley - They will be dissipated, lost in the hurry and scurry of the world, or sunk in the slough of indolence.
— from Pushing to the Front by Orison Swett Marden - And, to inure thyself to what thou art like to be, cast thy humble slough and appear fresh.
— from Twelfth Night; Or, What You Will by William Shakespeare
